Teaching with Primary Sources — MTSU
PRIMARY SOURCE SET: JIM CROW IN
AMERICA
Historical Background
Jim Crow, or segregation, laws of the late 19th and
early 20th centuries effectively divided the Ameri-
can South into black and white in almost every as-
pect of public life. The laws codified practices that
had developed over many decades during and after
slavery, and the laws made the custom of racial
separation much more rigid. Jim Crow laws ex-
tended to restaurants, hotels, theaters, bus stations,
parks, public restrooms and drinking fountains,
public schools, and the United States military.
The term Jim Crow grew out of nineteenth-
century minstrelsy and was first applied to segre-
gated facilities in the pre-Civil War North. While
there is evidence of the passage of some scattered
Jim Crow laws in the South during Reconstruction,
segregation enforced by law did not immediately
replace slavery in the aftermath of emancipation.
During the 1870s and 1880s, however, states be-
gan to pass Jim Crow laws, with one of the first
passed by Tennessee in 1875. By 1896, the U.S.
Supreme Court ruled in Plessy v. Ferguson that
“separate but equal” did not violate the 14th
Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.
Jim Crow placed a stigma on African Americans
and promoted the idea that they were second-class
citizens. At the same time, however, Jim Crow
encouraged black entrepreneurship and a strong
sense of community within black schools and
neighborhoods. In sum, though, the costs of Jim
Crow far outweighed any benefits. Civil Rights
leaders began their effort to dismantle segregation
by focusing on the inequality between black and
white schools in the South. The Civil Rights move-
ment finally brought an end to segregation by law
with the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Brown v.
Board of Education (1954) and passage of the Civil
Rights Act of 1964.
Negro drinking at "Colored" water cooler
in streetcar terminal, Oklahoma City, Ok-
lahoma [1939 July]
SUGGESTIONS FOR TEACHERS
Students today often have a difficult time under-
standing Jim Crow laws and their pervasiveness a
century ago. You can find a wide variety of
sources on the Library of Congress Web site to
illustrate the presence of segregated facilities,
schools, and businesses in American history. You
can use these sources to initiate class discussion
around this difficult topic.
Begin by having students analyze the sources
looking for evidence of Jim Crow. Discuss these
questions together: Are there more images that
designate “colored” places or “white” places? If a
facility did not have a sign, what do you think it
was assumed to be, and how would that have sug-
gested a distinction between the races? How
might each example of Jim Crow have influenced
an individual, both black and white? Did
“colored” facilities always appear inferior to
“white” facilities? What benefits might some Af-
rican Americans have found in separate facilities?
What would have been some of the practical
costs to communities of enforcing Jim Crow?
How do the signs make you feel today?
LINKS
 A guide to Harlem Renaissance material
 PBS Rise and Fall of Jim Crow: Games
and Activities
 Today in History: The Fourteenth
Amendment
 Political Cartoon Analysis Guide
 Race Relations in the 1930s and 1940s
 A timeline of African American History
 TPS-MTSU Newsletter June 2017
Jump Jim Crow [between 1966 and 1968]
Click here for an audio recording.

To the Colored
Men of Voting
Age in the
Southern States
[190?]

Jim Crow [Between 1835 & 1845]

Supreme Court of
the United States
Plessy v. Ferguson
[1896]
 Tuskegee History Class [1902]

Washington, Booker Taliaferro

[1903]
Alabama Hall,
Tuskegee In-
stitute, Ala
[1906]

Atlanta Exposition Speech [1895]

President Roosevelt and Booker Washington reviewing the 61

"industry" floats, Tuskegee, Ala [1906]
 Ida B. Wells in The Topeka State Journal.
NIGHT ADDITION, [1895]

Flag announcing
lynching, flown
from the win-
Report of Anti-Lynching Com-
dow of the
NAACP head- mittee [January 21, 1921]
quarters on 69
Fifth Ave.,
New York City
[1938]

Lynch law in Geor-

gia :a six-weeks'
record in the center
of southern civiliza-
tion, as faithfully
chronicled by the
Atlanta journal and
the Atlanta constitu-
tion [1899]
The broad ax (Salt Lake City, Utah)
[1922]
 Bessie Smith
“Wasted Life
Blues” Manuscript
copy [1929]

Portrait of Louis
Armstrong, between
1938 and 1948
[1938]
Click for more on
Armstrong

Drafts of Lang-
ston Hughes’s
Poems “Ballad of
Booker
T.” [1941]

The Memphis Blues [1913]

Duke and his group on

the cover of Down Beat
Magazine [1946]
Listen Here

Zora Neale Hurston

[1938 April 3]
Listen Here
 Negro carrying
sign in front of
milk company
[1941]

The broad ax. (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1895-

19??, August 02, 1919, Image 1 [1919]

Smoke billowing over Tulsa, Oklahoma during Apartment building in Negro section of Chicago,
1921 race riots [1921] Illinois [1941]

Ev'rybody's
crazy 'bout the
doggone blues
but I'm happy
[1918]
Listen Here

Kenneth L. Kusmer, Ed. The Great Migration and

After, 1917–1930, vol. 5, p. 4. Black Communities
and Urban Development in America, 1720–1990
[1917-1930]
 Marcus
Garvey,
1887-1940
[1924]

Clayton’s Weekly. (Seattle, Wash.) 1916-

1921 [1920]

Washington,
D.C. Portrait of
A. Philip Ran-
dolph, labor
leader [1942]

The Kansas City sun. (Kansas City, Mo.)

1908-1924, December 06, 1919, Image 3
[1919]

A. Philip Randolph to NAACP Secretary Walter White,

March 18, 1941. Typed letter. NAACP Records [1941]
 Silent protest parade in New York [City] against
the East St. Louis riots, 1917 [1917]
Niagara Movement Founders Click here for Teacher’s Guide (NAACP)
[1905]

Members of the British arm of the NAACP protest

against American violence against blacks [between
1910 and 1940]

W.E.B. (William Edward

Burghardt) Dubois, 1868-1963
[1919]
Click here to hear Dubois speak
about his activism

20th Annual session of the N.A.A.C.P., 6-26-29, Cleve-

land, Ohio [1929]
 Secondhand
clothing stores
and pawn shops
on Beale Street,
Memphis, Ten-
nessee [1939
Oct.?]

Tourist cabins for Negroes. Highway sign.

South Carolina [1939 June]

Jim Crow Resort? [1915] Drinking fountain on the county courthouse lawn,
Halifax, North Carolinav[1938 April; detail]

At the bus station in Durham, North Car-

olina [1940 May; detail] Beale Street, Memphis, Tennessee [1939 Oct? ]

Pleasant Green School--one-room colored
school near Marlinton, W. Va.--Pocahontas
Co... [1921 Oct. 6; detail]
Cadentown Rosenwald School, Caden Lane, Lexington,
Fayette County, KY [1933] Lesson Plan
Washington, D.C. Campus of Howard University
[1942]
Colored School at Anthoston. Census
27, enrollment 12, attendance 7...
[1916 September 13; detail]
Pleads for Jim Crow School [1915]
Fisk University, Nashville, Tenn., 1900 -
Theological Hall [1900?]
Click here for more images of Fisk Uni-
versity.
 CITATIONS: Jim Crow in America
Teachers: Providing these primary source replicas without source clues may enhance the inquiry experience for students. This list of
citations is supplied for reference purposes to you and your students. We have followed the Chicago Manual of Style format, one of
the formats recommended by the Library of Congress, for each entry below, minus the access date. The access date for each of these
entries is 5/16/17.
Lee, Russell, photographer. “Negro drinking at "Colored" water cooler in streetcar terminal, Oklahoma City, Ok-
lahoma.” Nitrate negative. July, 1939. From the Library of Congress, Farm Security Administration/Office of War Infor-
mation Black-and-White Negatives. http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/fsa1997026728/PP/.

Rice, Thomas “Daddy”, composer. “Jump Jim Crow [transcription].” Transcribed by Alan Jabbour, from a perfor-
mance by Henry Reed. Manuscript. Between 1966-1968. From the Library of Congress, Fiddle Tunes of the Old
Frontier: the Henry Reed Collection. http://www.loc.gov/item/afcreed000054/.

Hodgson, publisher. “Jim Crow” Etching and Ink. Between 1835-1845?. From the Library of Congress, Prints and
Photographs Division. https://lccn.loc.gov/2004669584.

Wright, E.A, publisher. “To the Colored Men of Voting Age in the Southern States.” 190?. From the Library of
Congress, African American Pamphlet Collection. http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/
rbaapcbib:@field(NUMBER+@od1(rbaapc+33200)).

Banks and Brothers Law Publishing. “Supreme Court of the United States. Plessy v. Ferguson” 1896. From the Li-
brary of Congress, Law Library of Congress. https://www.loc.gov/rr/program/bib/ourdocs/plessy.html

Cheynes Studio, photographer. “Washington, Booker Taliaferro.” Film negative. 1903. From the Library of Con-
gress, African American Perspectives. https://memory.loc.gov/ammem/aap/bookert.html

Johnston, Francis Benjamin, photographer. “History Class, Tuskegee Institute, Tuskegee, Alabama.” Photographic
print. 1902. From the Library of Congress, Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C.
https://www.loc.gov/item/98503043/.

Washington, Booker T., publisher. “Atlanta Exposition Speech [transcription].” Manuscript. September, 1895.
From Library of Congress, African American Odyssey. https://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/
aaodyssey:@field(NUMBER+@band(mssmisc+ody0605)).

Underwood & Underwood, publisher. “President Roosevelt and Booker Washington reviewing the 61 “industry”
floats, Tuskegee, Ala.” Photographic print. C1906. From the Library of Congress, Library of Congress Prints and Pho-
tographs Division Washington, D.C. https://www.loc.gov/resource/stereo.1s02155/.

The Topeka State Journal. “Ida B. Wells in Town. [from newspaper’.” June 8, 1895. From the Library of Congress,
Kansas State Historical Society. http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn82016014/1895-06-08/ed-1/seq-3/.

“Report of Anti-Lynching Committee.” Transcript. January, 21, 1921. From the Library of Congress, African Ameri-
can Odyssey. https://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/aaodyssey:@field(NUMBER+@band
(mssmisc+ody0707)).

“Flag announcing lynching, flown from the window of the NAACP headquarters on 69 Fifth, Ave., New York
City.” Photographic print. 1936. From the Library of Congress, Visual Materials from the National Advancement of Col-
ored Peoples Records. http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/95517117/
Wells-Barnett, Ida B., creator. “Lynch law in Georgia : a six-weeks' record in the center of southern civilization, as
faithfully chronicled by the Atlanta journal and the Atlanta constitution : also the full report of Louis P. Le Vin, the
Chicago detective sent to investigate the burning of Samuel Hose, the torture and hanging of Elijah Strickland, the
colored preacher, and the lynching of nine men for alleged arson.” Pamphlet. 1899. From the Library of Congress,
Daniel Murray Pamphlet Collection https://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/aaodyssey:@field
(NUMBER+@band(rbcmisc+ody0611)).

The Broad Ax. “Senators Shocked by May Lynching [from newspaper].” June 17,1922. From the Library of Con-
gress, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Library. http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84024055/1922-
06-17/ed-1/seq-1/print/image_681x737_from_0%2C3981_to_2033%2C6184/.

Gottlieb, William P., photographer. “Portrait of Louis Armstrong, between 1938 and 1948.” Film negative. 1938.
From the Library of Congress, William P. Gottlieb Collection. https://www.loc.gov/resource/gottlieb.09611.0.

Smith, Bessie, composer. “Wasted Life Blues.” Manuscript. 1929. From the Library of Congress, Music Division,
Performing Arts Reading Room. https://www.loc.gov/exhibits/treasures/tri049.html.

Handy, W.C., composer. “The Memphis Blues.” Manuscript. 1913. From the Library of Congress, Music Division.
https://www.loc.gov/resource/ihas.100006378.0/?sp=1.

Hughes, Langston, writer. “Ballad of Booker T.” Manuscript. June, 1941. From the Library of Congress, Langston
Hughes Collection. http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/mcchtml/corhome.html.

Gottlieb, William P., photographer. “Duke and his group on the cover of Down Beat Magazine.” 1946. From the
Library of Congress, William P. Gottlieb Collection. http://www.americaslibrary.gov/aa/ellington/
aa_ellington_band_1_e.html.

Van Vechten, Carl, photographer. “Portrait of Zora Neale Hurston.” Photographic print. April 3, 1938. From the
Libray of Congress, Carl Van Vechtan Photographs Collection. https://lccn.loc.gov/2004663047

Vachon, John, photographer. “Negro carrying sign in front of milk company, Chicago, Illinois.” Film negative. Ju-
ly, 1941. From the Library of Congress, Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information Black-and-White Nega-
tive. https://www.loc.gov/resource/fsa.8c19566/.

The Broad Ax. “Blood, Anarchy, Rapine, Race Riots, and All Forms of Lawlessness have Stalked Broad Cast,
Throughout Chicago the Past Week [from the newspaper].” August 2, 1919. From Library of Congress, University
of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Library. http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84024055/1919-08-02/ed-1/
seq-1/.

Krupnick, Alvin C., creator. “Smoke billowing over Tulsa, Oklahoma during 1921 race riots.” Film negative.
1921. From the Library of Congress, Visual Materials from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored Peoples.
http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/95517018/.

Lee, Russel, photographer. “Apartment building in Negro section of Chicago, Illinois.” Nitrate negatives. April,
1941. From the Library of Congress, Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information Black-and-White Negatives.
https://www.loc.gov/item/fsa1998002268/PP/.

Kusmer, Kenneth L., writer. “Great Migration and After 1917-1930.” Manuscript. Between 1917 and 1930. From
the Library of Congress, General Collections. http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/african/afam009.html#obj4.
Creamer & Layton, composers. “Ev'rybody's crazy 'bout the doggone blues but I'm.” Sheet music. 1918. From the
Library of Congress, Music Division. https://www.loc.gov/resource/ihas.100005292.0/?sp=2.

“Marcus Garvey, 1887-1940.” Photographic print. August 5, 1924. From the Library of Congress, George Grantham
Bain Collection. https://www.loc.gov/resource/cph.3a03567/

Cayton’s Weekly. “Africa for Africans [from newspaper].” October 9, 1920. From the Library of Congress, Washing-
ton State Library. http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn87093353/1920-10-09/ed-1/seq-1/print/
image_681x648_from_291%2C1682_to_1936%2C3249/.

Parks, Gordon, photographer. “Washington, D.C. Portrait of A. Phillip Randolph, Labor Leader.” Film negative.
November, 1942. From the Library of Congress, Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information Black-and-
white Negatives. http://www.loc.gov/rr/print/res/071_fsab.html.

The Kansas City Sun. “What of 1920? [from newspaper]” December 6, 1919. From the Library of Congress, State
Historical Society of Missouri. http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn90061556/1919-12-06/ed-1/seq-3/.

Randolph, Phillip A., writer. “A. Philip Randolph to NAACP Secretary Walter White.” Typed letter. March 18,
1941. From the Library of Congress, NAACP Records/Manuscript Division. https://www.loc.gov/exhibits/naacp/
world-war-ii-and-the-post-war-years.html.

“Niagara Movement Founders.” Photographic print. 1905. From the Library of Congress, W.E.B. Du Bois Library,
Special Collections & University Archives, UMass Amherst. https://www.loc.gov/item/2014645233/.

Underwood & Underwood, creators. “Silent protest parade in New York [City] against the east St. Louis riots,
1917.” Photographic print. C1917. From the Library of Congress, Visual Materials from the National Association for the
Advancement of Colored People Records. https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/95517074/.

Batey, C.M., photographer. “W.E.B. (William Edward Burghardt) Du Bois, 1868-1963.” Photographic print. May
31, 1919. From the Library of Congress, Miscellaneous Items in High Demand. https://www.loc.gov/pictures/
item/2003681451/.

"British NAACP pickets with anti-lynching placards.” Photographic print. Between 1910 and 1940. From the Li-
brary of Congress, Visual Materials from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People Records. http://
www.americaslibrary.gov/aa/dubois/aa_dubois_naacp_2_e.html.

"20th Annual session of the N.A.A.C.P., 6-26-29, Cleveland, Ohio." Photographic print. June 6, 1929. From the
Library of Congress, Visual Materials from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People Records. http://
www.americaslibrary.gov/aa/dubois/aa_dubois_naacp_3_e.html.

Wolcott, Marion Post, photographer. “Tourist cabins for Negroes. Highway sign. South Carolina.” Safety film neg-
ative. June, 1939. From the Library of Congress, Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information Black-and-
White Negatives. http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/fsa2000032347/PP/.

Wolcott, Marion Post, photographer. “Secondhand clothing stores and pawn shops on Beale Street, Memphis, Ten-
nessee.” Nitrate negative. October?, 1939. From the Library of Congress, Farm Security Administration/Office of War
Information Black-and-White Negatives. http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/fsa1998013755/PP/.
Cleveland Advocate. “Jim Crow Resort? [from newspaper].” October 9, 1915. From Ohio Historical Society, The
African-American Experience in Ohio, 1850-1920. http://dbs.ohiohistory.org/africanam/html/paged03a.html?
ID=5884

Vachon, John, photographer. “Drinking fountain on the county courthouse lawn, Halifax, North Carolina.” Nitrate
negative. April, 1938. From the Library of Congress, Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information Black-and-
White Negatives. http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/fsa1997003218/PP/.

Delano, Jack, photographer. “At the bus station in Durham, North Carolina.” Nitrate negative. May, 1940. From
the Library of Congress, Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information Black-and-White Negatives. http://
www.loc.gov/pictures/item/fsa1998006256/PP/.

Wolcott, Marion Post, photographer. “Beale Street, Memphis, Tennessee.” Nitrate negative. October?, 1939.
From the Library of Congress, Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information Black-and-White Negatives.
http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/fsa1998013763/PP/.

Hine, Lewis Wickes, photographer. “Pleasant Green School--one-room colored school near Marlinton, W. Va.--
Pocahontas Co. It is one of the best colored schools in the County, with a capable principal holding a first-grade
certificate. All the children are Agricultural Club workers. Location: Pocahontas County--Marlinton, West Virgin-
ia / Photo by L.W. Hine.” Photographic print. October 6, 1921. From the Library of Congress, National Child La-
bor Committee Collection. http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/ncl2004005115/PP/.

Hine, Lewis Wickes, photographer. “Colored School at Anthoston. Census 27, enrollment 12, attendance 7.
Teacher expects 19 to be enrolled after work is over. "Tobacco keeps them out and they are short of hands." Ages
of those present: 13 years = 1, 10 years = 2, 8 years = 2, 7 years = 1, 5 years = 1. Location: Henderson County,
Kentucky / Lewis W. Hine.” Photographic print. September 13, 1916. From the Library of Congress, National
Child Labor Committee Collection. http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/ncl2004004792/PP/.

Doerrfeld, Dean A., photographer. “Cadentown Rosenwald School, Caden Lane, Lexington, Fayette County, KY.”
Measured drawing. After 1933. From the Library of Congress, Historic American Buildings Survey. http://
www.loc.gov/rr/print/res/114_habs.html.

Cleveland Advocate. “Pleads for Jim Crow School [from newspaper].” July 3, 1915. From Ohio Historical Society,
The African-American Experience in Ohio, 1850-1920. http://dbs.ohiohistory.org/africanam/html/page6c14.html?
ID=5715.

Collier, John, photographer. “Washington, D.C. Campus of Howard University.” Film negative. 1942. From the
Library of Congress, Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information Black-and-White Negatives. http://
www.loc.gov/rr/print/res/071_fsab.html

“Fisk University, Nashville, Tenn., 1900—Theological Hall”. Photographic print. [1900?]. From the Library of
Congress, African American Photographs Assembled for 1900 Paris Exposition. http://www.loc.gov/pictures/
item/2001705785/.